Chapter 9 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 9, "The Democratic Opposition," looks systematically at the role of the Democrats in keeping the Republican administration on its toes. Their slowness to react to civil liberties questions, desire to help preserve the Union, and inept protests have been mentioned occasionally earlier in the book. Early suspensions of the writ receive little attention in even the most rabidly anti-Republican newspapers. Traumatized by military arrests, Maryland protests by satirical songs and the state legislature issuing 25,000 pamphlets talking about Lincoln's arbitrariness, "gross and unconstitutional abuse of power," and "revolutionary subversion of the Federal compact."

Judge S. S. Nicholas, who in the 1840s opposes refunding Jackson's fine, publishes an I-told-you-so pamphlet about martial law threatening slavery. Democrats are not seriously stirred until Taney's Merryman decision, civil liberties are absent during the Pennsylvania elections, and from the newspapers it would appear no political arrests are...